Fractal analysis in neurological diseases

Over the last decades, fractal analysis has been applied to the study of the spatial and temporal complexity of a wide range of objects in biology and medicine, including the irregular and complex patterns of the nervous system. In clinical neurosciences, fractal geometry has emerged as a powerful tool to objectively analyze and quantify the intricate structures comprising the topological and functional complexity of the human brain, shedding light on the understanding of the brain function at a systems level. The fractal approach has the potential to allow physicians and scientists to predict clinical outcomes, classification between normal and pathological states, and, ultimately, the identification and diagnosis of certain neurological conditions. In this chapter, the main applications of fractal analysis into clinical neurosciences are reviewed, with special emphasis on the diagnostic precision of the fractal dimension value in different neurological diseases.